Every price read from the program itself, October 2026
Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition Course and Business Acquisition Course Cost in 2026
A business acquisition course costs anywhere from $299 for a self-paced video course to $12,500 for a coached buyer program, and the most expensive programs are the ones least likely to publish a price. Of the eleven US programs below, Acquisition Lab and Acquira are the only coached programs with a written price ($12,500 each), while Contrarian Academy and Acquisition Ace sell through an application and a call. University courses sit in between: $905 at UCLA Extension and $1,545 at the University of Washington.
Verified MRR, churn and growth on every listing · no buyer success fee · from $99 a month · cancel any month
MRR and ARR trend
- Customers
- Founded
- ARR
- Margin
Reason for selling:
No deals match those filters yet. Widen your range.
The deck shows the listing format with sample deals. Verified listings appear once sellers complete verification.
The useful split is not cheap against expensive. It is content against people. A $299 to $2,000 course teaches the full buying process on video, and that part is not scarce. The $10,000 to $12,500 programs charge for coaches, deal reviews, a peer group and sometimes an investment committee, which is worth it only if you will actually use them during a search that typically runs most of a year.
Every price on this page was read on the program's own website, checkout or acknowledgement page on 3 October 2026. Where a program does not publish its price we say so and show what reviewers report, labelled as their claim. Nothing here is investment, legal or tax advice.
A course is the small line in a first acquisition. Over a twelve month search the programs below cost between about $19 and $1,042 a month, and none of them checks the revenue on the business you end up buying.
Read from each program directly, 3 October 2026
Every business acquisition course and buyer program a US buyer is likely to consider
Each price comes from the program's own page, checkout or post-application acknowledgement, not from a roundup. "Not published" means the program sells without stating the figure on its site; where reviewers report a price we show it as their claim, with the year.
Swipe to see every column →
| Program | Format | Price, as published | Term | Refund | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IndiePE Micro-PE course | Self-paced video plus alumni community | $299 for a limited time (list $599) | Lifetime access; future students pay an annual community fee | 30 days, if you did the work | Oct 2026 |
| Corey Parchman Business Acquisition Course | Self-paced video, 12+ hours | $497, $997 or $1,997 by tier | Lifetime; top tier adds 3 months of community and 4 group calls | 14 days, under 25% completed | Oct 2026 |
| UCLA Extension, Business Acquisition and Divestiture | University course, 4 units, online or in person | $905 | About 11 weeks | Per-section refund window | Oct 2026 |
| University of Washington, Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition | Noncredit online course with two live sessions | $1,545 | 10 weeks; next start 1 February 2027 | Not stated on the course page | Oct 2026 |
| Contrarian Thinking, Acquisition Foundations | Self-paced video, about 20 hours | $2,000, credited in full toward the Academy | Lifetime access, updates free for 1 year | 7 days (site terms) | Oct 2026 |
| Contrarian Thinking, Contrarian Academy | Community, weekly live calls, biweekly deal reviews, course | Not published; "Apply to Join". Reviewers report $8,000 (2024) to $10,500 (2026) | 1 year, renewal on conditions | Full refund within 7 days, then pause up to 3 months | Oct 2026 |
| Acquisition Ace | Daily live coaching, 1:1 calls, community | Not published. Reviewers report $6,000 (2024) to $12,800 (2025) | Not stated | Shown at checkout | Oct 2026 |
| Acquisition Lab | Community, advisors, deal reviews, sourcing tools | $12,500 once; $10,000 for US veterans; $5,000 for a search partner | Lifetime, no annual fee | 30 days, full refund | Oct 2026 |
| Acquira Accelerator | Training, group calls, coach calls, investment committee | $12,500 one-time; $11,250 for veterans (on the post-application page) | 12 months of core services, 18-month agreement | "All sales are final" | Oct 2026 |
| Searchfunder | Searcher community plus deal and industry data | $79 a month, $19 a month billed annually, or $432 lifetime | Membership | Not stated | Oct 2026 |
| SMB Deal Hunter Pro | Done-with-you search support | Not published. Reviewers report $12,000 to $20,000 | Not stated | Not stated | Oct 2026 |
Acquira's price does not appear on its marketing page; it is on the Accelerator Acknowledgement pages a buyer sees after applying, and its own blog put the same program at $9,500 in March 2024. Contrarian Academy, Acquisition Ace and SMB Deal Hunter publish no figure at all, so the reviewer prices above are claims we could not confirm at the source. The Contrarian Academy figure appears in Trustpilot reviews dated 15 July 2024 ($8,000) and 20 May 2026 ($10,500).
Our arithmetic, applied to the published prices
What each program costs per month of an actual search
A first acquisition search usually takes most of a year: the 2024 Stanford search fund study found the first letter of intent was signed on average 7.8 months into the search. So the fairest comparison is the price spread over a twelve month search, the period you will actually lean on the coaches and the community. Unpublished prices use the reviewer range and are marked.
Swipe to see every column →
| Program | Price | Per month over a 12-month search | What you are mainly paying for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Searchfunder (annual) | $228 | $19 | Peers, data, introductions |
| IndiePE | $299 | $25 | Video course |
| Corey Parchman Foundation | $497 | $41 | Video course |
| UCLA Extension | $905 | $75 | University course and credit |
| Buyouts Buyer Access | $1,188 | $99 | Verified AI SaaS deal flow, no course |
| UW Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition | $1,545 | $129 | University course |
| Corey Parchman Deal-Ready | $1,997 | $166 | Course plus 4 group calls |
| Contrarian Acquisition Foundations | $2,000 | $167 | Video course |
| Acquisition Ace | Not published (reviewers $6,000 to $12,800) | About $500 to $1,067 | Daily coaching |
| Contrarian Academy | Not published (reviewers about $10,000 to $10,500) | About $833 to $875 | Community, calls, deal reviews |
| Acquisition Lab | $12,500 | $1,042, then $0 (lifetime) | Advisors, deal reviews, community |
| Acquira Accelerator | $12,500 | $1,042 | Coaching and investment committee |
Acquisition Lab is the only coached program whose price stops: it is a lifetime membership with no renewal, so a second search costs nothing more. Contrarian Academy is a one-year membership with renewal on conditions, and Acquira's agreement ends after eighteen months. A program you stop using in month four costs three times as much per useful month as the table shows.
A course teaches the process, and the deal decides the outcome
Every program on this page teaches roughly the same sequence: pick a thesis, source owners, value the business, write the LOI, run diligence, finance the close. That sequence is worth learning once, and for most buyers $500 to $2,000 covers it. The expensive programs charge for something else, which is people: coaches who review your deal, a community that sends you introductions, a committee that tells you to walk away.
None of them can tell you whether the revenue in the seller's spreadsheet is real. That check happens on the deal itself, against the billing data, and it is where first-time buyers lose far more than any tuition. On Buyouts, every AI SaaS listing has MRR, ARR, growth and churn checked against the source billing system before it goes live, so the number you learned to underwrite is the number in the account.
Side by side
Buyouts against a business acquisition course, honestly
A fair look at what each does well. Both are useful. Here is where they differ.
| Feature | Buyouts | Acquisition courses and programs |
|---|---|---|
| What you are buying | Access to AI SaaS businesses for sale with verified metrics, plus diligence analysis | Education, coaching and a peer group; no deals of their own except through partners |
| Price | $99, $299 or $899 a month, stopped whenever you like | $299 to $2,000 for a course; $10,000 to $12,500 for a coached program, often paid up front |
| Teaches you how to buy a business | No structured course. Guides and checklists only | Yes. This is what they do best, and the cheap courses do it well |
| Someone reviews your deal | Diligence analysis built from the verified data on Buyer Pro and Acquirer, not a coach | Yes at Acquisition Lab, Acquira, Contrarian Academy and Acquisition Ace |
| Revenue checked before you make an offer | MRR, ARR, growth and churn checked against the billing data before the listing goes live | No program verifies the seller's numbers on your deal; that is your diligence |
| Industry focus | AI SaaS only | Mostly main street and lower middle market businesses in any industry |
| Success fee at closing | None on any buyer tier | None charged by the programs above on their published terms; partner services such as QoE or advisors are billed separately |
| Best fit | A buyer who already knows the process and wants software with numbers they can trust | A first-time buyer who needs the process taught and wants accountability |
Comparison reflects general, publicly understood positioning. Capabilities change, so check each marketplace for the latest. Trademarks belong to their owners.
Why founders and buyers pick Buyouts
One deal room built specifically for AI SaaS
Content is cheap, people are what you pay for
The curriculum is close to identical across the board. Every course on this page covers search thesis, sourcing, valuation on SDE or EBITDA, the LOI, diligence, SBA financing and the first hundred days. You can get that from a $299 to $2,000 video course, a $905 university class or the $30 Main Street Millionaire hardcover. The $10,000 and $12,500 programs justify their price with access: advisors who look at your actual deal, a weekly call where you can ask about a seller note, a peer who has closed with the same lender. That is worth real money if you use it every week of the search. If you watch the videos and never join a call, you bought a $12,500 course.
When the price is only on a call, the call is a sales call
Contrarian Academy, Acquisition Ace and SMB Deal Hunter all route buyers through an application before a price appears. Contrarian's own page requires a commitment to make a first acquisition within one calendar year. That is a legitimate way to screen members, but it means you negotiate against a trained closer without a published number. Go in with the figures reviewers report, $8,000 to $10,500 for the Academy and $6,000 to $12,800 for Acquisition Ace, and ask for the refund terms in writing before you pay. Contrarian's are 7 days, then a pause of up to three months. Acquira's are none. Acquisition Lab gives 30 days and publishes everything.
The refund window is shorter than the search
A 7 day or 14 day refund window closes long before you know whether a program helps you buy a business. The only coached program here with a refund long enough to test the community is Acquisition Lab at 30 days, and its membership never renews. At the cheap end the risk is small: IndiePE refunds within 30 days if you did the work, and Corey Parchman within 14 days if you completed under a quarter of the course. At $12,500 with "All sales are final", as on Acquira's acknowledgement page, read the 18 month agreement term before you sign.
If you are buying software, verify the numbers, not just the process
Most acquisition programs are built around main street businesses: laundromats, HVAC, home services, distribution. Their valuation and diligence lessons assume a broker teaser with SDE you will check against tax returns. A SaaS business is priced on recurring revenue, churn and growth, which live in Stripe or another billing system, not in a tax return. That is the part Buyouts does: every AI SaaS listing has its MRR, ARR, growth and churn checked against the billing data before you see it, with no buyer success fee. Many buyers do both, a cheap course for the process and verified deal flow for the deal.
Keep reading on the parts of a deal this page touches: Contrarian Thinking reviews and what the Academy really costs, Acquisition Ace reviews and its unpublished program price, deal sourcing platform pricing for small business buyers, how to buy a business, step by step with costs, buy side advisor fees, when you pay someone to search for you, SBA loan to buy a business, rules and rates, how to verify MRR before you buy a SaaS business.
Good questions
Business acquisition courses, answered
More comparisons
See how Buyouts compares
Acquire.com alternative
An AI-SaaS-native marketplace with verified metrics, published multiples and vetted buyers, not a generalist startup listing wall.
vs FlippaFlippa alternative
A curated, metrics-verified, vetted-buyer marketplace for AI SaaS, not a high-volume auction wall.
vs MicroAcquireMicroAcquire alternative
An AI-SaaS-focused marketplace with verified metrics and real deal-flow tooling, not a generalist micro-startup feed.
vs Empire FlippersEmpire Flippers alternative
A self-serve, AI-SaaS-native marketplace with published multiples and escrow, not a content and eComm brokerage.
vs FE InternationalFE International alternative
A self-serve, AI-SaaS-native marketplace with verified metrics and published multiples, not a high-minimum sell-side advisory.
vs Deal sourcing platformsDeal sourcing platform
Every small business deal sourcing platform a US buyer is likely to pay for, with its published price, its buyer success fee and what it actually verifies.
The deal room for AI SaaS, not a yard sale
Buy with verified metrics, published multiples and escrow-backed closes, or list your AI SaaS to a pool of vetted, capital-qualified buyers.
Listings, metrics and buyers shown are illustrative product UI · valuation content is educational, not a guaranteed sale price or return · trademarks belong to their owners